Syracuse's Jim Boeheim aided John Beilein's career in big way

Apr. 2, 2013

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Detroit Free Press Sports Writer

Jim Boeheim: Beilein admirer / Mark Gail/MCT

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As Jim Boeheim recalled it Monday, then-West Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilong was picking his brain a decade ago on where to look for a new basketball coach, mentioning he had chatted with John Beilein.

Boeheim wondered, then, why Pastilong was wasting his time talking to him instead of arranging Beilein's travel from Richmond, Va., to Morgantown, W.Va.

"I told him to hang up the phone and call John Beilein back and hire him without waiting another minute, because he's a great coach and he's won every place he's been," Boeheim said. "He's just a tremendous guy and a great basketball coach. I've always admired his coaching at every level, watching his teams play. We've never even gone out to dinner, but I just have tremendous respect and admiration for how he coaches."

They have enjoyed each other from afar over the years, these professorial basketball junkies with upstate New York roots, and they have crossed paths from time to time -- Boeheim in the stands to check out Beilein's Division II Le Moyne College team; a Beilein coaching clinic there assisted by Boeheim and his Syracuse team; and nine meetings on the court, all won by Boeheim.

Now Beilein finally has the athletes to compete -- a meeting that will matter more than all the others combined. He'll lead Michigan (30-7) against Boeheim and Syracuse (30-9) in the Final Four on Saturday at Atlanta's Georgia Dome, with the winner advancing to Monday's national title game against Louisville (33-5) or Wichita State (30-8).

This will be an exhibition of coaches and their innovations. Boeheim is known for making art of the 2-3 zone, and it just terrorized Indiana and Marquette to the tune of 89 total points allowed in East Regional wins to reach Atlanta.

Beilein is known for his offensive system, a blend of spacing and skill that has become a symphony in this tournament -- outside the clutches of the Big Ten and led by point guard Trey Burke and "probably the most future NBA talent" of any of the Final Four teams, Turner Sports analyst Steve Kerr said Monday.

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And this will be a celebration of longevity, achieved in different ways. Boeheim, 68, has been at Syracuse for all but two years of his adult life, a stint with the Scranton (Pa.) Miners of the American Basketball League.

He played for Syracuse in 1962-66, roomed as a freshman with Dave Bing, became an assistant under Roy Danforth in 1969 and succeeded Danforth in 1976. He has 920 wins at Syracuse, most for a coach at one school in Division I history, and only Duke's Mike Krzyzewski (957) has more overall.

This will be Boeheim's fourth Final Four appearance and an attempt at a second championship to go with the one spearheaded by freshman Carmelo Anthony in 2003. Along the way, he took time to catch some Beilein ball, on display in his backyard in 1983-92.

"We'd be playing a game, maybe it would be a big game, Philadelphia Textile, different teams that were our rivals at Le Moyne," Beilein said of a school that also is in Syracuse, N.Y. "I would look up in the stands, he never called me for a ticket, maybe called others, but Jim would be in the stands watching a game on occasion."

A self-made coach from his start at Erie Community College in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1978, Beilein, 60, won there and at every other stop -- Nazareth, Le Moyne, Canisius, Richmond, West Virginia and now U-M. He has 672 wins overall as he enters his first Final Four.

And before Boeheim put in a word to get Beilein from Richmond to West Virginia, he helped him make the move from Le Moyne to Division I Canisius.

"He really helped me get the Canisius job, no question," Beilein said. "I was a borderline candidate. He really got me on the board. Ended up getting the job. That was 20 years ago. So I owe him a lot."

A loss, for one thing.

Contact Joe Rexrode: 313-222-2625 or jrexrode@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @joerexrode. Check out his MSU blog at freep.com/heyjoe.

Join us for a live blog of the Michigan-Syracuse Final Four game Saturday night at freep.com/sports.

More Details: Boeheim vs. Beilein

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim is 9-0 against teams coached by Michigan’s John Beilein. A recap of their meetings: